The column notes two new developments — Hill buzz over some Senate Democrat leaders’ plan to attach the nationalization of student loans to the health care reconciliation bill and the use of a new, dubious poster boy for Demcare, Marcelas Owens. The story doesn’t add up, and as usual, anyone who questions the logic and holes in these anecdotes will be labeled a “stalker.” Been there, done that…

Have you noticed something about the audiences that President Obama has cherry-picked to cheer his government health-care takeover road show? They’re getting younger and younger. Today, Obama brings the traveling campaign to St. Charles High School in St. Louis, Missouri for a closed-door, invitation-only speech. If he doesn’t end the endless “No More Time For Talk” talks soon, he’ll be peddling Democrat reconciliation tactics on Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob Squarepants.

But desperate times call for demagogic measures. True to form, the Obama White House is wielding the human kiddie shield as its last-stand defense for Demcare.

On Monday, Obama surrounded himself with a ticketed-only crowd of Arcadia University college students in Pennsylvania (sprinkled with purple-shirted officials from the Service Employees International Union, natch). The Washington-based commander-in-chief traveled outside his Beltway bubble to a campus bubble to trash the political climate which he leads.

“That’s just how Washington is. They can’t help it,” he pontificated as the idealist young students nodded like empty bobbleheads. “They?”

You won’t be surprised by Obama’s biggest applause line of the speech: Peddling a Big Nanny provision in the Senate-passed health care bill that requires insurance plans that cover dependents to provide benefits to children up to age 26. Vowed Santa Obama: “If you’re a young adult, which many of you are, you’ll be able to stay on your parents’ insurance policy until you’re 26 years old.” Whoops and huzzahs erupted from the eager wards of the permanent, ever-expanding Nanny State.

As I’ve reported before, there are now an estimated 20 states that have already passed legislation requiring insurers to cover adult children. The slacker mandates cover “kids” ranging in age from 24 to 31. And it’s these very government health care mandates that contribute to rising health care costs.

But there was no time for higher learning at Arcadia University. Out: education. In: adulation. “I love you!” screamed a cult follower in the stands. “Love you back,” Obama responded.

Now, comes word from The Hill that Senate Democrat leaders want to graft Obama’s single-player plan to nationalize the student loan market onto the Senate health care reconciliation bill. That way, Obama’s college-age foot soldiers can argue that a vote against Demcare is a vote against The Children.

How low can they go? One of President Obama’s youngest lobbyists – 11-year-old Marcelas Owens of Washington state – traveled to D.C. on Tuesday on the dime of astroturf group, HCAN (Health Care for America Now). His 27-year-old mother, Tiffany, died of pulmonary hypertension. According to the family, Ms. Owens – a single mother of three — lost her job as a fast-food manager and lost her insurance. She received emergency care and treatment throughout her illness, but died in 2007.

Young Marcelas – goaded by his left-wing activist grandmother and promoted by Democrat Sen. Patty Murray — is now a regular on the pro-Obamacare circuit and is leading a congressional sit-in until the Democrat plan passes. He admits he doesn’t understand the complexities of health insurance reform and doesn’t “think it’s anyone’s fault” that his mom passed away. “But they could have done more” for her, he says.

It’s a heart-wrenching story, but the tale raises more questions than it answers. Washington state offers a plethora of existing government assistance programs to laid-off and unemployed workers like Marcelas’s mom. Why didn’t she enroll? Second, she died nine months after she reportedly lost her health insurance. By the time she lost her coverage through her employer, she was apparently already in dire health straits. It’s not clear that additional doctors’ visits in the subsequent months would have prevented her death.

All that said, the Owens’ case demonstrates the flaws of the employer-based system of health insurance. It needs real reform. Unfortunately, the current crop of Democrat plans would leave the employer-based system fully intact. What we need are grown-ups to start over from scratch and leave the kids on the playground.